Perl weak references

Installing Catalyst on a FC8 box I encountered this error:
Weak references are not implemented in the version of perl

after some attempts I found the solution, with the help of google:

perl -MCPAN -e shell

cpan> force install Scalar::Util

yum update &| pirut in less then 24hours installed a perl module
and restored the situation of Scalar::Util
I had to force install again...

BTW, perl in FC8 seems buggy:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=196836

but is good enough for my applications, so far...

Upgrade FC from 6 to 7

I've recently (tonight) upgraded my laptop from Fedora Core 6 to Fedora 7.
I've a pretty complete installation of Fedora and everything worked almost perfectly during installation...

The procedure I used is:

1. Double check /etc/fstab for any /dev/hdX reference
   
2. # yum update
3. # yum clean all
4. # rpm -Uhv http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/7/Fedora/i386/os/Fedora/fedora-release-7-3.noarch.rpm http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/7/Fedora/i386/os/Fedora/fedora-release-notes-7.0.0-1.noarch.rpm
5. # yum -y upgrade

I had some problems, well: minor problems that could stop an [unexperienced|lazy] linux user.

1. /etc/fstab
We could talk about the reliability of linux installations, but I won't. The upgrade from 6 to 7 could bring some annoying problems regarding devices... some devices changed since a driver in the kernel had upgraded, the result is that devices called: /dev/hdX are now called /dev/sdX. For this reason you should check your /etc/fstab for devices. I had only LVM devices and correctly labeled other devices, so this warning didn't touch me. But if a # grep hd /etc/fstab produces something to you, well, label records to something appropriate or upgrade will lock your box for a while.

4. rpm upgrade repos
remember to check YOUR system code:
PPC, x86_64 or i386
you really DON'T want to install some packages compiled on different architectures

5. yum -y upgrade
You could encounter some problems here, during the dependencies check... I'm very happy about the repository package system on linux boxes, dependencies are very well managed and getting an error here doesn't mean that linux is something wrong, it's simply double checking everything to make sure that everything will work correctly... I had some unresolved dependencies, due to the fact that I installed some extra packages to get some chess engines work on my laptop... to get out from this stale I decided to remove every package named...

the instruction:

# rpm -e python-cheetah python-setuptools PyOpenGL TurboGears python-turbocheetah pygtkglext glchess python-paste-script

resolved any dependency problem.

So I run again:
# yum -y upgrade 

from the command prompt (outside the window manager, BTW), after some time
and 1gb of packages downloaded, my system was upgraded.

Post installation:
Some package have still the fc6 code in their name, on this laptop are:

# rpm -qa | grep -c fc6
55

but a note on redhat.com assures this is perfectly normal for packages that didn't need a rebuild.

ext3_abort

on a linux machine I was experiencing this error

hdc: task_in_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hdc: task_in_intr: error=0x40 { UncorrectableError }, LBAsect=155768546, sector=155768546
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
end_request: I/O error, dev hdc, sector 155768546

Seems definitely an hardware error, but I've some reasonable doubts about drivers.

...but then, after some trivial operations on computer, this error appeared, locking the system drive "ro" and causing many errors operationals errors:

EXT3-fs error (device dm-0): ext3_find_entry: reading directory #19432083 offset 0
Aborting journal on device dm-0.
journal commit I/O error
ext3_abort called.
EXT3-fs error (device dm-0): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
Remounting filesystem read-only
ext3_abort called.

a reboot solved, almost temporary the problem...

LCD Dell

In my long search for a LCD quality screen at a reasonable price, Dell products are standing high.

The parameters for my perfect video are:

• wide format is something I'd really like
• Panel should be reasonably good
• the larger the better, 27" or 30" is my upper limit
• no speakers, no TV input
  

LCD technology is a different world from LCD marketing, nowadays.
Fast and contrasty are cheap TN panels, perfect for some, nightmare for others
S-PVA, PVA, S-IPS and variants are the keywords everyone interested in colors should seek in characteristics. Unfortunately panel types are not published from producer in the technical specifications.

www.flatpanels.dk, in dansk (!), has a good database of LCD producer and panel types.
It's a goldmine, really! From this site I can read that the following Dell LCDs are,
and prices in € from the Dell's site (today is Sep 25th 2007)

3007 WFP-HC : S-IPS 1785€
2707 WFP : S-PVA 1106€
2407 WFP-HC : S-PVA 982€
2007 WFP : S-IPS 502€

I reasonably think that all these panels / LCDs are of excellent quality,
now it's just a matter of a good price/quality ratio...

I'm oriented towards the Dell 2407 and 2707. Since my current CRT screen is
still working, I've no hurry, but I'm just checking prices...

On March 16th 2007 prices were:
Dell 2707 1169,10€
Dell 2407 1078,80€

but between Jan and Feb of 2007, 2407WFP had a price of 674€... so stay tuned!

I've found, googglin' around, a gamer loving his 2407WFP

FC6 installation on Ext USB... Error 15

after insalling FC6 from a DVD on an external drive (USB)
I encountered the following problem.

Grub Loading Stage1.5.

grub Loading, please wait...
Error 15

freezing the boot...

after trying a
mkinitrd --preload=ehci-hcd --preload=usb-storage --preload=scsi_mod
--preload=sd_mod /boot/myinitrd.XX.YY.img

after editing via rescue /etc/grub.conf
and switching harddrives

disabling splashimage

commenting out hiddenmenu

_none_ of these solved anything...

Finally, I made thru linux rescue

grub-install --recheck /dev/sdb

AND

switching hd1 with hd0

and everything started to work

Don't use nslookup

http://homepages.tesco.net./~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/nslookup-flaws.html

realkill

carino questo script in perl
un accanimento terapeutico...


for my $signal (qw{TERM INT HUP KILL}) {
last if kill $signal, $pid;
warn "warning: kill failed: pid=$pid, signal=$signal\n";
sleep 1;
}